From: Hal Finney (hal@finney.org)
Date: Mon Jun 03 2002 - 11:27:49 MDT
Future Milky Way tourists setting their travel plans in order may
want to tune into the Discovery Channel tonight. According to Wired,
http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,1282,52891,00.html, the channel
will be showing a documentary, The Unfolding Universe, that includes
some stunning computer graphics representing the history and geography
of the Milky Way.
Tourists will especially want to view the many quaint and curious
structures near the galactic core,
http://www.wired.com/news/gallery/0,2072,52891-4093~4092,00.html,
including the Cane, Pelican, Snake, Tornado, and the diminutive Mouse,
as well as the mysterious Threads and the glittering supernova remnants
(SNRs).
It is said that all roads lead to the galactic core, but for the
directionally challenged the video will provide a compressed-time 2
1/2 minute journey from the solar region, through the galactic disk,
into the crowded central bulge.
The history of the Milky Way includes the historical First Star, a 100
solar mass entity which was forced to form solely from self gravitation,
without the aid of compression waves from the supernova explosions of
earlier stars. Unfortunately this ancient ruin has long since been lost,
its own supernova explosion having seeded the many daughter stars which
themselves led to the complex galaxy we see today.
Other highlights include fantastically complex simulations of gravitational
wave emissions from black hole death spirals,
http://www.wired.com/news/gallery/0,2072,52891-4097~4096,00.html
http://www.wired.com/news/gallery/0,2072,52891-4099~4098,00.html
http://www.wired.com/news/gallery/0,2072,52891-4101~4100,00.html.
Best observed from a distance!
A must see for future tourists of all interests. Four stars!
Hal
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